When I reviewed MLB08: The Show in mid-April, I also held a contest to give away several copies of the game. I asked folks to “leave a suggestion in the comments on how to improve Ducksnorts” and said that I would pick four winners from those.

First off, thanks to everyone who entered. Your efforts help shape the way Ducksnorts will continue to evolve, and I can’t be grateful enough for that.

To the winners:

Let’s Chat

Brian would like to see greater interactivity:

I’d like to see more opportunities for interactive chatting on the blog. The traditional blog format is great, but sometimes it’s a little unwieldy to follow all the comments, especially if I come in late in the game. I live in Mexico and I don’t have perpetual access to internet, but I would definitely make the effort to sit in on a chat, maybe once a week, or once a month. I envision something like a “State of the Padres” conversation. This is a much more fluid format than the hundreds of comments that come after a provocative post.

I love this idea, but I’m not sure how to implement it just yet. Suffice to say, it’s on my radar. (If anyone has suggestions, please feel free to send ‘em my way.)

More Screen, Please

LynchMob offered several excellent suggestions; here’s my favorite among them:

Widen the page… I gotta believe 99% of us see blue bars on the right 1″ and left 1″ of the web page

I’m happy to say that I’ve implemented this one… with a twist. During testing, a few folks expressed a preference for the narrower version, so I found a technical solution that allows people to choose which format they like best. I’ve added a menu item up at the top (Narrow/Wide) that toggles between the two. Go nuts.

Help Me Find Stuff

Coronado Mike chimed in with some terrific ideas as well:

Advanced search. Possibly search by poster or content within posts. I hate having to go through 5 or 6 different blogs to find one post.

During IGDs, can we have a running score/situation mod? Not all of us are watching the game during IGDs and it would be great to know what is going on.

Add and “interview with a Padre” post…maybe once or twice a month, post up an interview with one of the players/front office people.

The first two are technical issues, and they’re on my to-do list. The third one is an access issue, and I’m not sure how possible it will be to implement such a feature. It’s a great idea, though, so I’ll see what I can do on that front as well.

Show Yourself

krs1 wanted to place faces with names:

I personally think it would be cool to have some kind of avatar thing set up. Something that maybe displayed out name location and maybe a picture or “Ducksnorter Since ?” type of thing.

Thankfully this one was real easy to do. And judging from the many avatars I see floating around the comments, it’s pretty popular. Folks like to see who they’re talking to; who knew?

If you haven’t gotten yourself one yet and you’d like to, go to Gravatar and get hooked up. It’s free.

Congrats to Brian, LynchMob, Coronado Mike, and krs1. I’ll be in touch so that I can get your game to you. Thanks again to Sony for providing the goods and to all who entered the contest for helping to improve this little thing we call Ducksnorts.